What are the main features of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2015 (LARR Act)?

Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2015 (LARR Act) amends the LARR act 2013.

The following are proposed amendments in the bill: 

• The Bill creates five special categories of land use defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors, and infrastructure projects including Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects where the central government owns the land.
• These five special categories are exempted from the provision under the LARR act 2013 which mandates consent of 80% of land owners for private projects and that of 70 per cent of land owners for PPP projects.
• The Bill exempts projects in these five categories from undertaking Social Impact Assessment to identify those affected.
• The bill removes the restrictions on the acquisition of irrigated multi-cropped land imposed by LARR Act 2013.
• The Bill brings provisions for compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement under other related Acts such as the National Highways Act and the Railways Act in consonance with the LARR Act.

LARR act 2013 brought in to ensure the rights of farmers over the land are protected. But it is creating problems in the land acquisition for the developmental activities. Hence these amendments were proposed under the LARR bill 2015.
The dilution of the provisions of the mandatory consent and social impact assessment resulted in unrest. As a result the bill was referred to the standing committee of parliament.